Woking Conservatives launched its 2012 local election manifesto on Thursday (April 5), setting out its vision for the borough, making six key pledges to the voters of Woking and reporting on how its 2011 election pledges have been delivered.
For the third year in a row, the party will issue a manifesto, which it believes can make local politics more accountable. Woking Conservatives think that making clear promises is good for local democracy and better informs local people about the choices that they make at the ballot box.
This year, the party is making six pledges:
1) We will maintain our record of low Council Tax
2) We will continue to invest in Woking’s economy
3) We will move towards a fantastic 65% recycling target
4) We will continue to improve publicly-accessible green spaces
5) We will invest in more community buildings
6) We will tackle dog fouling borough-wide
The manifesto also contains an update on pledges from 2011, including the freeze of Woking’s share of Council Tax, its achievement of a 60% recycling figure in the last quarter of 2011 and the redevelopment of Woking Town Square.
Cllr John Kingsbury, leader of Woking Borough Council, said: “During the past year, the Conservative administration has been working very hard to meet the pledges that we made this time last year.
“We have done so by freezing our share of Council Tax, by not cutting any services and by maintaining our support to the voluntary and charitable sector in Woking. We have continued to invest in the local economy and community facilities — not only this, but many of these investments are actually making money for the council too.
“In a difficult economic climate, there is a lot of good news for people in Woking. I hope that residents will take the time to look at our manifesto — everything we are pledging to do comes from what the public told us they wanted.”